The wildfires’ terrible toll on California’s firefighters

Share this:

Firefighter Vincent Plant of San Diego, Calif., with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service crew walks to his fire engine after helping with a fire line on Placer Rd. near Diggins Way in Redding, Calif., during the Carr Fire Saturday, July 28, 2018. Scorching heat, winds and dry conditions complicated firefighting efforts. – Hector Amezcua — The Sacramento Bee via AP

With the news early this week that a 42-year-old firefighter from Utah helping to battle the massive Mendocino Complex Fire had been killed, the death count of those working on California’s multiple blazes has now jumped to six.

Battalion Chief Matthew Burchett from the city of Draper north of Provo died Monday while battling the massive fires in California.

“The entire community of Draper is mourning his loss,” Mayor Troy K. Walker told the Salt Lake Tribune, adding that Burchett left behind a wife and son. Flags at Draper City Hall were quickly lowered to half staff; the city fire department added a black band across its shield online.

“Fact finding on the accident is ongoing and notification of the next of kin is in progress,” Cal Fire said in a statement. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”

Burchett’s is the first reported death of someone involved in battling the fires in Mendocino County and the sixth of the fire season in California. Two firefighters have died battling the Ferguson Fire in Mariposa County and three more people working on the Carr Fire in Shasta County have perished in the line of duty.

California, with its isolated steep-ravined backcountry and its fast-moving grassfires, has a nasty reputation when it comes to firefighting. “This country … chews up firefighters,” one veteran fire management officer with the US Forest Service told his crew during a meeting featured in a story by the LA Times. “It has had a notorious past of being very hard on us. So as you guys are going out there, working on whatever assignment you guys have, please keep in mind what you’re doing and the risks associated with that.”

Front-line firemen and women aren’t the only one’s in harm’s way: this fire season also claimed the life of a PG&E utility worker who died during the Carr Fire while trying to restore power to the area. And a mechanic with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection assigned to the Carr Fire died last week in a vehicle crash in Tehama County.

Here’s a look at six people who have died either battling California’s wildfires this season or helping residents escape to safety:

Braden Varney

On July 14, this heavy-equipment operator with Cal Fire died in rugged terrain while battling the Ferguson blaze. The first fatality of the season, Varney was maneuvering a bulldozer cutting firebreaks when the machine overturned. The Cal Fire Heavy Fire Equipment Operator (HFEO) had been called to report to the Ferguson Fire’s frontline where the blaze has broken out off Highway 140 not far from his Mariposa home. Cal Fire lost contact with Varney that night and his body was found the next day alongside the bulldozer at the bottom of a ravine.

Varney was the son of another California firefighter; Gordie Varney was an HFEO for Cal Fire before he passed away in 2012 from cancer. The younger Varney leaves behind his wife Jessica and their two small children, 3-year-old son, Nolan, and 5-year-old daughter, Maleah. Two days after Varney died, Cal Fire hand crews and dozer operators cut a fire break around the site so a recovery team could get to him, the Modesto Bee reported.

“After loading Varney’s body into a basket and covering it with an American flag, the plan was to have a helicopter hoist him out, but the smoke made the task too hazardous,” said the report. “So the crews and fire captains fought the steep terrain and lovingly passed Braden hand over hand from his resting spot to bring him out of the ravine as Amazing Grace played over a loud speaker, echoing ‘through the canyon as a soundtrack to the mission at hand,’” Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit Chief Nancy Koerperich said during her eulogy.

Jeremy Stoke

As the Carr Fire exploded into neighborhoods on Redding’s western flank on July 26, 37-year-old Stoke, a fire prevention inspector, was killed. Authorities said Stoke “died while working to ensure the residents of west Redding had a chance to escape the flames,” but details have not yet been released. Stoke, a14-year veteran of the Redding Fire Department, had volunteered to cut his own vacation four days short and help residents escape their homes.

“Jeremy answered the call to respond like he has a hundred times before and to a fire about to affect our city,” said Cullen Kreider, Redding’s interim fire chief, speaking at his memorial which drew 1,000 people. “In the face of the huge fire front, he went to work and I know lives were saved because of his actions.”

The circumstances surrounding Stoke’s death remain under investigation and a report will be released soon on the findings, Redding Fire Marshal Craig Wittner told the Redding Record Searchlight.

According to his GoFundMe page put together by family friend and local high-school teacher Justin Cascarina, “Jeremy was well known as a selfless and giving member of his community who constantly donated to a number of local charities, many of which help children with serious illnesses. His last act in this life was nothing short of heroic as Jeremy remained in an intensely dangerous area of the fire as it built to a ‘firestorm. As those who know him would have expected, he gave his life to save those of others and to protecting the community he so loved.

The tribute for his family, which so far has raised $11,000 of a $50,000 goal, says Stoke leaves behind a wife and two children. “The funds raised from this campaign,” says the page, “will directly benefit Jeremy’s immediate family as they struggle to cope and work through this challenging time without a husband and a father.”

Brian Hughes

The Ferguson Fire claimed its second victim two weeks later when Hughes, captain of the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots, was killed after a tree fell on him while his crew was trying to set a backfire to limit a fire’s spread by cutting off its fuel supply. Hughes was treated at the scene but died before he could be taken to a hospital.

Hughes, 33, was killed on the afternoon of July 29 during an operation on the east side of the fire. The Hilo, Hawaii native had been working with the Hotshots for the past four years and he had nearly 15 years of firefighting experience after beginning his career with an emergency fire and rescue unit in Fort Collins, Colorado called the Larimer County Yellow Jackets.

“He was always looking to gain as much knowledge as he could; he was always asking questions,” said Justin Whitesell, emergency operations director for The Larimer County Yellow Jackets who worked alongside Hughes during his two years in Fort Collins.

A GoFundMe account has been created to help raise money for Hughes’ fiance, who is three months pregnant. A memorial for Hughes drew scores of family and friends and included colleagues with the Arrowhead Hotshots, staffers from the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, USDA Forest Service, as well as many fire departments, including Tulare County, and agencies within the fire community.

“Brian’s legacy lives on in every life he saved and place he protected,” said Woody Smeck, Superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, during the memorial ceremony, according to a story in the Sierra Star. “We will remember and honor his sacrifices and service, now and forever, in the extraordinary places that he helped to protect.”

On the GoFundMe site set up for Hughes’ family, where $162,220 has been raised after an initial $5,000 goal was established, a tribute refers to Hughes’ selfless devotion to his family and his job.

“Brian Hughes was loved by everyone he met,” it says. “He was a funny, enthusiastic, outgoing and all around an amazing human being. His fellow Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots would say he was a great leader who was an iconic Hotshot and was more than just a friend, he was a brother, mentor, and motivator.

“Brian tragically passed away in the line of duty on July 29, 2018 while battling the Ferguson Fire in Mariposa County. He is survived by his parents, sister, and fiancé who is 3 months pregnant with their first child, as well as their 2 dogs Zephyr and Taco.

“He was excited and nervous to be a father and would go around asking the other fathers on the crew for some fatherly advice. He loved Paige and his family very much. Brian is a hero who not only gave his life fighting fires but gave back to our country by saving lives and property countless times through his 15 year career.”

Andrew Brake

Last Thursday, the Carr Fire burning in Shasta and Trinity counties claimed the life of Cal Fire Heavy Equipment Operator Andrew Brake. The 40-year-old was killed in a traffic crash on Highway 99 in Tehama County while he was en route to help battle the fire. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered Capitol flags to be flown at half-staff in Brake’s honor and offered condolences to Brake’s family.

The crash occurred at 12:17 a.m. after a Dodge Ram 5500 veered off the highway’s right shoulder, slammed into a tree and caught fire, according to Officer Ken Reineman of the California Highway Patrol’s Red Bluff station.

The Carr fire has proved to be the most lethal in California this year. In addition to the firefighters lost, four Redding residents have also died in connection with the blaze.

Jairus Ayeta

The 21-year-old apprentice lineman with Pacific Gas & Electric was performing electric-power restoration work in a remote part of Carr Fire-ravaged Shasta County when he “sustained fatal injuries involving a vehicle accident,” according to Melissa Subbotin, a PG&E spokeswoman. Ayeta died at the scene of the single-vehicle traffic accident on an unpaved access road near Whiskytown Lake.

Known to friends as Jay or Jai, Ayeta lived in Antelope in Sacramento County and his job, said a PG&E spokesperson, was to “assess, repair and replace” equipment in wildfire-damaged areas after fire authorities had declared the immediate fire threat had passed. A statement from the coroner said Ayeda had “suffered major injuries as a result of the collision.”

Matthew Burchett

Burchett, a 42-year-old batallion chief with the city of Draper, Utah, died in a hospital after being injured earlier in the day. Detailers have not yet been released.

“Fact finding on the accident is ongoing and notification of the next of kin is in progress,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”

The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday reported that Burchett began working for the Draper City Fire Department in May, after 20 years working for the Unified Fire Authority.

“I’ve known Matt for a long time — over 20 years,” said Draper Fire Battalion Chief Bart Vawdrey. “It’s tough. Anytime we lose a brother, it’s hard.”

He said Burchett “jumped at the chance to go assist in California.”

Burchett was one of about 40 Utah firefighters, from seven agencies, deployed to California.

“He was a good man,” Vawdrey said. “He had a very dry wit, and he was very professional . . . . I would describe him as a master of his craft.”